Risk Factor by Karis Walsh

Author:Karis Walsh [Walsh, Karis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781635550702
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2015-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Ainslee felt sweat fusing her to the hard plastic seat on the MAX the day after her trail ride with Myra. She’d had to walk a quarter mile from her apartment to catch the train and she was dreading the two blocks from the station to her physical therapist’s office. The temperature was pushing ninety on a cloudless summer day, and the heat, combined with her sore muscles, made Ainslee cranky. She had refused to sit in one of the handicapped seats near the door, so she stood in line with a crowd of people who were disembarking at her stop and slowly filed through the door.

She stood near the brick wall of a department store and considered her choices. Head north to the therapist’s office, or cross the street and rest in an air-conditioned café? She had already dropped out of three different PT programs. None had been failures—she’d seen improvements along the way, but she’d always found some reason to stop going. She didn’t get the point of endless sessions. No therapist would ever make her whole again.

This therapist, however, was the link between her and Myra’s riding program. He had filled out an application for her and had encouraged her to try the lessons. He’d be certain to tell Myra if Ainslee went AWOL and didn’t make her appointment. The imagined look of disappointment on Myra’s face was enough to make Ainslee push away from the building and start walking north.

Her thighs protested her accustomed way of walking with her prosthesis. She usually tried to keep tension in her hips, controlling the swing of her walk to make her limp as unobtrusive as possible, but yesterday’s trot on Deacon had turned her muscles to mush. She stepped out of the flow of people and rested near the curb. She thought about Myra’s words to her, and the way she had been pushing herself off balance by trying too hard to restrict movement. The memory of Myra’s hands on her leg and under her thigh made her uncomfortably aware of every sensation in her legs. The friction of denim and the warmth of the sun seemed to set her nerve endings on fire, but she tried to ignore her arousal and focus on the concept Myra had been teaching.

Ainslee started walking again, but she stopped fighting her prosthesis and let her leg find a new, natural way of moving. Instead of trying to hide her limp and move like she used to before her surgery, she relaxed her hips and swung her leg forward. She wasn’t sure how she looked from a bystander’s point of view, but she felt some relief in her aching muscles. Once she was inside the office and on the treadmill warming up for her appointment, she kept the same loose stride.

“What did you change?” Dr. Campbell asked, coming over to where Ainslee was exercising. “Your gait is better. Range of motion, smoothness. What are you doing differently?”

Ainslee told him about her experience with Deacon’s trot and the way she’d incorporated the lesson into her walk.

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